I Spoke too Soon.

I always manage to jinx myself by mentioning things that I hope won't happen...then they do.  Self-fulfilling prophecies are the worst.  Previously I mentioned that Shadowrun:  Hong Kong was enjoyable but has a number of bugs that can be frustrating.  I hadn't encountered anything game-stopping until I got about 95% of the way through the game.  (Spoilery spoilers about the almost end of the game ahead!)

Yo crew, there be bugs ahead.

As I made my way through Kowloon Walled City I met a group of civilians who were in the unfortunate position of being trapped behind a barrier with a bunch of angry Tsang Services soldiers.  Fortunately for these civilians you can find a detonator on some guards you kill and choose to blow up the barrier and rescue them from the angry soldiers.  I chose this option...and it didn't turn out very well.  The civilians turned on me and I had to fight them as well as the Tsang Services soldiers.  It's not a difficult fight, there are just many enemies to defeat.  I headed to the next area and was confronted with what seemed to be some guards who were going insane.  One guard was attacking another and threatening to pull out her teeth and tongue (you read about this several times through the game--it's a thing).  The guards start attacking each other and you squad is caught right in the middle.  I tried to hide my crew behind cover and let the guards finish each other off.  The guards were definitely not having that and proceeded to attack my group.  Having no other choice I finished off the crazy guards.  The guard who was the target of the attacks showed up as a neutral mob and sort of scampered off the previously occupied portion of the map.  I made my way forward and found another group of guards being attacked by some demonic minions.  I positioned my crew and started attacking the guards while they were taking out the demons.  With both groups down I realized that I was stuck in combat and that there was no option to head to the next area.  Ugh...this is definitely a bug.

In an effort to come up with a workaround to this annoying bug I re-loaded my game at the beginning of the zone.  During the fight with the crazy guards I had my team use grenades to take out both the hostile and neutral guards.  Once they were all down I headed to the next area and proceeded to take out the guards and demons.  I figured that having the one neutral guard alive was what was screwing up the progression.  Turns out I was wrong.  I was still stuck in combat and couldn't progress to the next zone.

Deciding to go even further back I managed to find that there was a save in the previous room where you can choose to save the civilians.  Knowing that the little bastards would turn on me I decided to leave them to their fate and proceed to the next area.  I fought all the guards and.....boom!  I dropped out of combat and was able to move on.  It was not exactly what I wanted to happen, but I was glad that I didn't get stopped in my tracks right before the end of the game.

I noticed today that there is another update for Shadowrun:  Hong Kong and I hope that this bug and others (like being able to pick an etiquette at the beginning of the game) are fixed.  If you are 95% through the game and stuck on this portion, just let the civilians die (they're going to die anyway--and by your own hand).